First-year Stevenson stuns CNU 46-43 in double overtime

OWINGS MILLS, MD.  Christopher Newport's football program is just 11 years old, but the Captains were the grand old veterans last night when they visited Stevenson, which was playing its first home football game ever.

If the fledging Stevenson program in suburban Baltimore was supposed to be intimidated by the perennially playoff-bound Captains, they didn't show it.

The Mustangs tied the game on the final play of regulation, and Mustangs quarterback C.J. Hopson threw his fifth touchdown pass of the game in the second overtime as Stevenson stunned the Captains, 46-43, in double overtime at Stevenson's gleaming new $9 million Mustang Stadium.

The Captains, hoping to go to 2-0 for the first time ever, had taken a 43-40 lead in the second overtime on Stephen Denuel's 21-yard field goal. On Stevenson's ensuing possession, Hopson eluded a rush  something he seemed to do all night  and found Jeromie Miller in the right corner of the end zone for a 19-yard, game-winning score.

"We just didn't play with an energy level I expected," Captains coach Matt Kelchner said. "We didn't match their enthusiasm. I'll take the blame for that."

Stevenson (1-1) took to its home field for the first time ever under a shower of green and white fireworks, but it was Hopson, a transfer from Bucknell, who provided the biggest sparks.

Early in the fourth quarter, Hopson took a toss back on a double-reverse flea flicker and heaved a 67-yard touchdown to Jae DeShields for a 30-21 Stevenson lead.

Denuel's third field goal of the game got the Captains to within 30-24, and quarterback Christian Woelfel-Monsivais scored on a fourth-down keeper from 8 yards out to tie the game at 30 with 4:03 left. The Captains, though, botched the conversion attempt.

A blocked punt by Tyshawn Harris gave the Captains the ball back at Stevenson's 15-yard line, and Denuel's 19-yard field goal with 1:01 left gave the Captains a 33-30 lead.

But they couldn't contain Hopson (19-for-37, 284 yards), who drove the Mustangs 46 yards in the final minute.

"He was the best player on the field tonight," Kelchner said. "You have a Division I quarterback on a Division III team, and you have a chance to win."

With seven seconds left and the ball at the Captains 20-yard line, Hopson scrambled and threw incomplete in the end zone. Though the Captains coaches pleaded that time had expired, the scoreboard showed that one second remained.

"That game was over," Kelchner said, "but it shouldn't have come down to that."

With one final play, Stevenson kicker Garrett Perau connected a 37-yard field goal to send the game to overtime.

Marcus Holley scored from one yard out in the first overtime for Stevenson, and quarterback Christian Woelfel-Monsivais answered with a 3-yard run for the Captains.

For the Captains, moving the ball was not the problem, especially in the first half. Finding the end zone proved more difficult. Their opening possession ended when Markeese Stovall (31 carries, 164 yards) fumbled at the Stevenson 5-yard line, and two other drives stalled inside the Stevenson 20, leading to a pair of field goals by Denuel.